The Vājasaneyi Prātiśākhya mentions that:

samāse’vagraho hrasvasamakālaḥ (5.1)

“In [the padapāṭha of] a compound, the avagraha has the same time has a hrasva vowel.”

The commentaries of Uvaṭa and Anantabhaṭṭa explain that the ‘avagraha’ is separation of a compound into its constituent elements:

Uvaṭa: dvayoḥ padayoḥ pṛthaggrahaṇo'vagrahaḥ। nānāgraha ityarthaḥ। hrasvasamakālo hrasvākṣaratulyakālo bhavati।
Anantabhaṭṭa: avagraho nāma dvayoḥ padayoḥ pṛthakkaraṇam। sa ca hrasvākṣarasamakālo bhavati।

However, this applies to the padapāṭha and not to the saṃhitāpāṭha

Nowadays, the avagraha sign is used to show what is called akārapraśleṣa

In Vedic saṃhitāpāṭha or in laukika poetry, the avagraha is not considered a syllable for prosodic purposes.

For more on this, please refer the entry on अवग्रह (avagraha) in A Dictionary of Sanskrit Grammar by K.V. Abhyankar 

On 17 August 2016 at 05:14, Harry Spier <hspier.muktabodha@gmail.com> wrote:
Clarification about my question.  What I meant to ask was  avagraha ever pronounced as a pause and if so was it considered a syllable in Sanskrit metrics.

Thanks,
Harry

On Tue, Aug 16, 2016 at 6:12 PM, Harry Spier <hspier.muktabodha@gmail.com> wrote:
In Sanskrit meter is avagraha ignored or is it considered as a short syllable?

Thanks,
Harry Spier


_______________________________________________
INDOLOGY mailing list
INDOLOGY@list.indology.info
indology-owner@list.indology.info (messages to the list's managing committee)
http://listinfo.indology.info (where you can change your list options or unsubscribe)



--
Nityānanda Miśra
http://nmisra.googlepages.com